"They talked about how amazing it would be if they could come to America," Mary Johnson said of the teens she met in Romania last year. Now, the 13 Romanian teenagers will be hosted in the homes of Brockport's Christ Community Church families. One teen is already visiting the area, the others will be here by the end of July. Mary, a recent graduate of Brockport High School, and her sister, Greta, home-schooled and entering tenth grade, expect two of the female visitors to be guests in their home in Sweden Village. The two-week visit by the teens from Tigru Mures, Romania, is a project of Christ Community Church's forty-member teen youth group. The group has made mission trips yearly for several years to: New York City, Pittsburgh, Granada, England, Mexico, Guatemala. This is the first time an exchange visit has been arranged. The project is headed by youth pastor, James M. Hinman. "The (Romanian) teens we visited were amazed and could not believe that we would make the sacrifice necessary (for the visit)," Hinman said. "It was beyond their comprehension of possibility." The Brockport church's teens are making the trip possible through fund raising projects. Greta was the top salesperson of plants contributed at discount by Kirby's Farm Market in Brockport and by Nagle Garden Center in North Chili. A church variety show by teens also raised funds. Mary contributed from her summer job earnings. Each of the 40 teens must raise $250 with other church members also contributing. In the cultural exchange, Mary lived with a Romanian family, visited a children's orphanage and hospital, a gypsy village, and helped lead worship with the teens that are members of the church whose name means "divine church of the reborn." "Basically, our purpose was to encourage the youth group and help them understand different things about America and what we believe in," Mary said. The teens coming here will enjoy seeing Niagara Falls, a Rhinos soccer game, and the "Kingdom Bound" show at Darien Lake, among other attractions still being planned. Seven of the visiting group are worship leaders in their church and are preparing contemporary Christian music to be performed in several churches here. About the cultural differences, "I have come to understand how much we have in America," Mary said. She noted such things as clean water from a faucet and family incomes well above the average $70 per month that a parent earns in the Romanian household. Mary does not think the Romanian visitors will be lured by this country's material prosperity. "Life is simple in Romania," she said. Marcia Johnson is Mary's and Greta's mother and also has two sons living at home; David, ten years old, and Kevin Jr., who went on his church's mission trip to Granada in high school. Marcia says it will be fun to serve their guests American food and to see what they like to eat. The additional teenagers in the Johnson home will not be a chore for her. "I can't wait to have them in our home," she said. "I love extra kids." |
